“Sir, we are authorized to terminate anyone attempting to leave the quarantine zone. Please return to your vehicle and go back the way you came.”
He did what they said with no further argument.
Things were well and truly fucked up here.
Tony, the punk teen, raised a hand. Not the kind of courtesy I’d expect from someone with that many pieces of metal stuck in him.
“Like what?” he said. “What do you want us to say?”
“Whatever you’d like,” Simone replied. “Where you’re from, what you do, how you came here.”
Wow,
I thought.
This is like the world’s weirdest encounter group.
But I didn’t say it aloud.
“Oh,
please.”
Kaitlyn scowled at all of us. “Why waste our time? Who gives a crap what any of us did before we found out that we’re freaks. What does it matter?”
No one said a word. Simone peered at Kaitlyn, and I couldn’t tell for the life of me what she was thinking.
Kaitlyn squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. It squeaked in protest. We all winced at the sound.
Finally Simone spoke, her tone carefully neutral.
“The way things are now, the people in this room are more important to you than your closest loved ones,” she said. “You’ll be trusting them quite literally with your life. It would be to your advantage to know about the people who will be watching your back on a daily basis.”
Kaitlyn flushed, her expression more angry than embarrassed. I got the feeling Ms. Rodeo Drive wasn’t used to having someone stand up to her. Hopefully the ‘tude
would come in handy when she was slaying zombies.
I took a quick peek at Gabriel. His expression was as unreadable as Simone’s. I wondered when he’d learnt to hide his feelings, ’cause he sure hadn’t bothered when I met him. He glanced in my direction, and my gaze flickered away almost as quickly as his.
I felt heat rising in my cheeks.
“Ashley, why don’t you go first?” Simone suggested.
Well, crap.
Maybe she didn’t
mean
to put me on the spot, but I still hated it. But I wasn’t about to let her down, so I took a deep breath and dove right in.
“Um... well, I’m Ashley and—” Suddenly I couldn’t resist it. “I’m Ashley, and I’m a wild card.”
Blank stares. All except Kai, who let out a little snorting laugh.
“They say the first step is admitting it,” he said with a grin. Damn, he was cute, even if he’d be the first person to say so.
Gabriel frowned.
Okay, not serious enough
.
I continued.
“I, uh, go to school here at Big Red, including Professor Fraser’s course on pandemics.” I looked at Simone. “Guess this is a field trip, huh.” That got a laugh from everyone but Kaitlyn and Lily, although it was hard to tell what was going on behind all that hair.
“Anyway, I’m here because my boyfriend and I were attacked in the woods behind campus. We ran for it. I was bit, and survived.” I swallowed hard and stared straight ahead. “Matt didn’t.”
Kai reached across and patted me sympathetically on my knee.
“That’s rough.”
Tears stung my eyes for a brief second. I forced them back and managed a quick smile.
“How about I go next?” he suggested. “I’m Kai King, double major, English and Drama.”
A soft voice emerged from behind the veil of hair that was Lily.
“How’d you get... how did you find out you were a wild card?”
Whoah, she talks!
Kai winced and rubbed his forearm.
“Roommate was down with Walker’s and he... well, I came back to our dorm after classes, and he bit me on the arm before I knew what the hell was happening. About that time, this guy—” He gestured towards Gabriel. “—came through our dorm with a bunch of dudes with guns. Brought me here, and I... I guess I was one of the lucky ones.”
Kaitlyn made a rude noise.
“You think this is
lucky
?”
Kai bristled.
“Did you see any of the people who were dying from this?” He held up his arm where the marks of human teeth were still visible. “It’s a nasty way to go. So, yeah, I’d say I’m damn lucky.” His gaze went around the room. “Just like the rest of you.”
Kaitlyn shook her head defiantly.
“I watched while my best friend and her daughter were ripped to pieces at a rest stop a few miles down the road,” she said. “We were on our way home to Arcata. They had to use the bathroom. I didn’t.” She wrapped both arms protectively around herself as she talked. “So I stayed beside the car while they went inside. Total tourist trap, with those chainsaw carved redwood statues of bears and pigs. They’d just reached the doors when a bunch of those things burst out of the building and around the sides of the porch.
“We... we froze. One of them bit me, but I got in the car. Sharon and Megan—they didn’t stand a chance.”
She shot Kai a hostile look.
“So yes, if I had a choice, I’d rather be dead than remember the sound of their screams.” She glared at all
of us, as if daring us to offer her any sympathy.
Stupid me, I tried anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“Oh,
are
you?” I’d never heard three words infused with quite so much venomous sarcasm. I’d have been impressed if I hadn’t been the target. “That’s funny, because you don’t seem capable of anything beyond making shallow jokes. I wonder how your boyfriend would feel if he knew how seriously you’re taking his death.”
Oh, no, you DI’n’t.
I stared at her, not quite believing I’d heard her correctly.
The rest of the group looked equally stunned.
It took a few seconds for my brain to process the fact that, yes, she really
did
just go there.
Taking a few deep breaths, I sat up very straight in my chair.
Both Gabriel and Simone tensed.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to judge me, or decide how my boyfriend would feel.” I kept my voice level, even though I was right at the edge of losing it.
Simone stepped in.
“Everyone deals with trauma differently,” she said, and she looked directly at Kaitlyn.
“That doesn’t mean it’s all right!” Kaitlyn’s voice trembled with rage.
Simone started to reply, but I’d had enough.
“You’re right,” I said. Everyone looked at me. “It’s
not
always appropriate. For instance, Kaitlyn, you’re dealing with your own grief by focusing on me. I’m not sure why, but I really don’t give a shit. Because I’m not your whipping girl, and it’s
not
okay for you to be a total bitch.”
Another deep breath.
“Because you’re not the only one here who’s lost someone.”
Kaitlyn’s mouth opened and closed like the proverbial beached fish, but she couldn’t come up with
a response. She finally sat back in her seat, red-faced, furious, and thankfully silent. Good thing ’cause I had an itchy right hook.
“Well, then,” Simone said briskly. “Tony, what about you?”
Tony still looked bored. After a moment he spoke up.
“Playin’ video games at the arcade in Redwood Grove. Manny and I were duking it out on
Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles
. These totally reeking deadheads came in. Fuckers tore up the place and messed up my high score.” A weird smile flashed across his face. “That fucker Manny’d be laughing his ass off, if they hadn’t eaten him.”
We sat in stunned silence, not knowing what to say. He just shrugged.
“Hurt like hell to get bit, but here I am.”
He slouched back in his chair, twiddling his thumbs as if there were joysticks attached. So Simone turned.
“Mack?”
Mack gave her a little nod and gazed at us all with those big, sad eyes, hands resting on his jeans-clad knees.
“I’m a mailman,” he said, almost as if it was an apology. “I was on my route, with all those little houses that’re off the beaten path.” He had a soothing voice, kind of like Garrison Keillor, made for folksy homespun tales. “I know the people real well. They’re the kind of folks who make homemade fudge for my Christmas bonus, real nice people.”
He swallowed.
“I kind of figured something was wrong when I stopped at the Miller’s place. Young couple with two kids, real cute twins, five years old. Those little girls always come out to say hi when they hear me at the door.
“Well, this time...” he swallowed again. It looked like it hurt. “They didn’t come out. Even though the front door was open, just the screen door shut, but not all the way. Shantal—that’s Mrs. Miller—well, I knew she was
home ’cause her car was in the driveway. But she didn’t come out to say hello, either.” Mack wiped his forehead on a blue and black plaid flannel sleeve.
“At first I tried not to worry. You know, maybe they were out back or something. But then I noticed... well, the flies. They were buzzing on the inside of the screen and... and on the floor... it looked like blood. Mrs. Miller had one of those scented candles lit, cinnamon or something. But underneath it, I could smell something rotten.”
He looked guilty.
“We’re not supposed to go into anyone’s house on our routes. We’re not supposed to do that. But I then thought, what if the twins were hurt? So I went inside.”
Even Kaitlyn seemed to be holding her breath.
“There was stuff—a cast-iron pan, half-cooked hamburgers, blood and other stuff on the floor. Maybe a finger. I’m not sure. It was covered with flies.
“One of the stove burners was still on, so I turned it off before it started a house fire. Then I heard a sound from the living room, a moan, like someone in pain.
“The girls, the twins—” He looked up again, directly at me this time, eyes deep wells of pain. “They were eating their mom.” Kaitlyn made a choked sound, hand flying to her mouth. Mack gave her an apologetic look, but kept going.
“I didn’t know what to do. I guess I yelled or made some sort of noise, ’cause the girls—those little girls all covered in their mother’s blood—they looked up and saw me standing there and, well, they left their mom and attacked me.” He pulled the cuff of his pants up on his right leg to show several healing wounds. “I didn’t want to hurt them, but they kept coming. I made it to the kitchen, grabbed the fry pan and—”
He stopped for a moment.
“I didn’t want to do it. But I had to. I had to hit them. Those sweet little girls.” He stopped, tears running down his cheeks.
Surprisingly, it was Lily who spoke first.
“You had to do it, you know.” She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, somehow still managing to keep her face covered by hair. “They weren’t little girls any more.”
Mack nodded, dashing the tears from his eyes with closed fists.
“I know,” he said quietly. “But when I hit them, I still saw their faces like they were when they were alive.” His voice choked up as sobs wracked his body. Simone handed him a package of tissues she seemed to conjure from thin air.
After a moment she spoke again.
“Lily, what about you?”
Lily had started to shrink back into her chair, like a blow-up doll that was deflating, but Simone’s voice stopped her in mid-shrink.
“Me?” she said. “I... I just... I live in an apartment in town. Above my mom’s bead shop.” She kept her head down as she talked. I ached to push the hair away from her face. It was kind of like talking to Cousin It. “I work there on weekends and afternoons after class. Mom’s in San Francisco on a buying trip, although she was supposed to get home tonight.”
She stopped, as if uncertain where to go from there.
“Do you go to Big Red?” I smiled encouragingly, hoping she could see it through the hair.
Lily nodded.
“I’m studying art and photography,” she said “My boyfriend and I were at the student union. He was texting—he does—
did
that all the time, and I got mad at him because I was sick of it. So I went outside to get some fresh air and I saw these people—these things—heading toward the union. They didn’t look right. And I could smell them.”
She jerked her head toward Mack, hair briefly lifting to reveal pretty features.
“Like you said you could smell something rotten in the house, right?”
Mack nodded. Then she vanished back beneath the hair.
“I could smell them on the breeze.” She paused, fiddled with a strand. “They started attacking people. At first I thought it was a joke, like one of those flash mobs, but then I saw the blood. I ran back in the union, tried to get Casey to listen to me.”
“But he just thought I was still mad at him, and kept on texting. Ignored me.” She gave a little shrug that could have meant anything. “He did that a lot. Ignored me, I mean.”
Jeez, this really
was
like an encounter group. I kept the thought to myself, though. Last thing I wanted to do was spook the girl now that she was talking.
“So they came through the front door. Lots more blood, bright shiny blood, red like an apple. Casey didn’t take it seriously, just kept on texting.” She shrugged again. “Before you know it... I tried to help him, but there were too many of them. One of them bit me on the shoulder, and I saw them tear him to pieces before I ran out the back door.
“They bit his arm off, and it was still holding his iPhone.”
With that, Lily heaved a great sigh and sat back in her chair, a wind-up toy whose key had run down.
Kai raised a tentative hand.
“How bad is it out there?” he asked, looking at Simone and Gabriel.
Simone hesitated briefly.
“It’s not good,” she replied, “But so far it’s contained within a hundred-mile radius around Big Red. The relative isolation of Redwood Grove and the sparseness of residences and businesses in the surrounding area have worked in our favor. But if even
one
carrier makes it through to a more populated area, we could easily lose control.
“Which is why it’s important that we move forward quickly. We’re going to do our best to prepare you, but I’m afraid the majority of your training will come in the field.” She smiled. “Welcome to the
Dolofónoi tou Zontanoús Nekroús.”
“Delta Zeta Nu,” Kai grinned. “I guess we’ve made it through rush week.”